SPECULATION: Why Apple's new "iTunes Social Network" Ping is the REAL "monster under the bed" of yesterday's Music Event

So, I finally and belatedly watched the Apple Music Stevenote. Here's my topline: New iPods; new AppleTV. Stream is the new sync. Rent is the new buy. Also, anyone who thinks the App Store isn't coming to AppleTV in a soft refresh is just being all crazy (once they solve for screen size/controls, that is—my bet: an add-on AppleTV TouchRemote, $59; or just use your iPod Touch/Nano or iPhone with a free downloadable app.)

And then there's Ping. And Ping...could be big.

In fact, I think Ping really might be the monster under the bed of this keynote. Everyone keeps talking about this as some kind of iTunes-limited “canned-socnet-in-an-app,” but they forget that there are very clear signals that Apple’s moving iTunes to the cloud and web sometime in the not so distant future. 

Which means that Ping might well end up being a lot more than Apple’s saying it is. 

Imagine, if you will, Ping going from just a “social network about music” to being a “social network about ________” (fill in the blanks with music, TV, film, apps — anything that Apple currently pushes through iTunes). That’s an obvious next step.

Now imagine Apple builds a cloudy iOS, in response to Google’s Chrome OS — but rather than being an OS that hosts a browser, it would be the *browser hosting the OS*. (Presumably this would be Safari only.)

iCloudOS would run iOS apps INSIDE the browser. Which would also allow for the rumored convergence of MacOS and iOS—iOS runs inside the browser of MacOS, no funky confusion with switching or bootloading or virtualization or whatnot.

Meanwhile, iCloudOS would also by definition run iOS apps inside Ping....creating a totally new way of distributing apps: The Social Network IS the iTunes Store. 

Say I like something, I pimp it to my friends, they demo it in their browser, they buy it with a click, they can play it both in-browser and on all of their iOS devices — iPod Touch, iPhone, AppleTV, etc. And obviously, Apple's social gaming network GameCenter and Ping would then converge as well, allowing you to track ranks, broadcast your achievements or matchmake games across Ping — with players who are playing in-browser or on any iOS device.

IS THIS NOT HUGE? 

Maybe it's crazy. 

But it could be the future. You read it here first.

Posted via email from OriginalSpin